Emmanuelle Arsan

(Marayat Rollet-Andriane)France (1932 - )

Marayat Rollet-Andriane nee Marayat Bibidh (born 1932 in Bangkok, Thailand) is a French writer of Eurasian origin, most famous for creating the fictional character Emmanuelle (under the pseudonym Emmanuelle Arsan), a woman who engages in an exploration of her own sexuality under varying circumstances.

At the age of 16 Arsan was married to a French diplomat at UNESCO, Louis-Jacques Rollet-Andriane. Her novel Emmanuelle, presumably a quasi-autobiography, was published and distributed clandestinely in France in 1957. Following the success of her film Emmanuelle in 1974, Arsan directed the film Laure(1975) about the sexual discoveries of a younger "Emmanuelle" named Laure in yet another exotic surrounding.